Canadian Policy Initiatives

WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 16, 2012 – Today, Canada’s Environment Minister, the Honourable Peter Kent, alongside United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Environment Ministers from participating countries, launched a new global initiative aimed at making rapid progress on countering climate change and improving air quality. The new initiative, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, is composed of six participating countries–Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico, Sweden and the United States–and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

“This is an important alliance that will serve to reduce emissions, help counter climate change, and work towards delivering a global solution to this global problem,” said Minister Kent. “Taking action on short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) will yield positive results in the near-term as we continue to make progress in our efforts to reduce emissions from longer-lived greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide.”

It is estimated that SLCP emissions, such as methane, black carbon (soot), and tropospheric ozone, will contribute about half of the climate warming from current anthropogenic emissions over the next couple of decades. They have critical impacts on water cycle, crop yields, air quality and human health. This issue is of particular importance for Arctic countries, as black carbon has an additional warming effect when deposited on snow and ice. MORE

The CCPA has been coordinating the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) since 1994 with the participation and support of researchers, activists and leadership from a broad spectrum of civil society organizations representing millions of Canadians. The Alternative Federal Budget is a ‘what if’ exercise—what a government could do if it were truly committed to an economic, social, and environmental agenda that reflects the values of the large majority of Canadians—as opposed to the interests of a privileged minority. It demonstrates in a concrete and compelling way that another world really is possible. Find out more here.

An initiative of our British Columbia Office, this project looks at climate change from a social justice perspective, asking how we can tackle global warming with fairness and equality. It is a partnership between the CCPA, the University of British Columbia, a multi-disciplinary team of academics from three BC universities, and more than 40 trade unions, environmental organizations, First Nations, social justice groups, and other research institutes. Find out more here.

The Economic Security Project examined the impacts of policy changes in British Columbia on “vulnerable” groups such as seniors, people living in poverty, recent immigrants, and children and youth. The project (now winding down) was led by the CCPA and Simon Fraser University, and brought together a network of more than 20 academic researchers and 25 community organizations. Find out more here.

The CCPA Education Project was established in 1996 to monitor corporate
intrusion in public education. With a wide circle of research associates representing all aspects of the education sector, accessible research, case studies and thoughtful commentary and analysis, the CCPA Education Project provides a welcome–and often humorous–balance to the rhetoric of market-based education reform that continues to erode our public education system. Find out more here.

Canada’s income gap between the rich and the rest of us has been growing, unchecked, over the past generation. The Growing Gap team works with economists and researchers across Canada to document the problem and put forward solutions for a fairer, more equal society. Find out more here.

Social Watch is a civil society research and monitoring initiative which currently involves hundreds of NGOs in some 60 nations. It was formed in the wake of the 1995 UN Social Summits in Copenhagen and Beijing, with the goal of monitoring how our governments were meeting their commitments to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. The Canadian Social Watch is now housed with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in collaboration with the North South Institute. Find out more here.

The Trade and Investment Research Project (TIRP) is an independently funded project administered by the CCPA. TIRP pools the trade policy research resources and expertise of Canadian non-governmental organizations from a variety of sectors. It produces expert research on a wide range of important trade and investment policy issues. Find out more here.

Despite a history of significant public investment and innovation, poverty and social exclusion persist in Manitoba’s inner-city and Aboriginal communities. While conventional, one-dimensional strategies have had little effect, alternative community development strategies show promise, but face barriers. The Transforming Inner-city and Aboriginal Communities project is a community-university collaboration that seeks to identify these barriers, explain their tenacity, and develop strategies that are transformative—that enable communities to overcome poverty and social exclusion in ways of their choosing. Find out more here

Pembina is currently advocating for the adoption and implementation of a National Renewable Energy Strategy for Canada with our partners in the Canadian Renewable Energy Alliance (CanREA). In 2005, Pembina and the other partners in CanREA hosted regional workshops and analyzed best practices around the world to develop a renewable energy framework. CanREA’s model for a National Renewable Energy Strategy is built on maximizing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy at both the federal and provincial levels.

Pembina has prepared background papers for CanREA to support the development of the model strategy:

Pembina and other members of CanREA continue to engage governments in consultations and joint working committees, work with the renewable energy industry, and build support at the community level in order to promote strategies that maximizes the use of renewable energy in Canada and around the world.

Pembina’s paper, “Successful Strategies for Energy Efficiency,” also reviews international experiences in energy efficiency that could be implemented in Canada at the provincial and federal level alongside renewable energy policies.